I haven't written in a while. I've been keeping busy with various things, like getting stared in business, building a piece of furniture, researching fibercrete, and dreaming about a nautilus-shaped house.
The process of getting started in business is an intense one, involving many time-consuming steps before one can safely begin working. I had to draw up a contract, start a bank account, order many little things, and start keeping track of all sorts of things.
But I think I'm just about to the point where I can really start working.
Incidentally, and just in time, I've gotten my new (to me) laptop working.
I want to keep as many things as possible separated as far as business or personal is concerned. So it's important that I do nearly all of my work-related tasks on a work machine.
I was given this machine by one of the members of the Pensacola LUG, and I'm very grateful for it. The man who gave it to me told me that it worked but needed a new power cord/brick. I ordered one, and it recently arrived. I booted up, and everything worked well. So I shut it down and started installing Debian. It had had Mandrake on it, but I don't know much about Mandrake, and I don't have an install disc for it, so I wouldn't really be able to administrate the system as it was.
The PCMCIA network interface cards (NICs) I have are a bit on the funky side, and Debian wasn't able to use them, so I pulled down an Ubuntu ISO and burned a new install disc for it. Debian is well-known for its handling of unusual hardware, and it read my NIC right away. It's based on Debian, so the system adminstration is familiar to me.
So, now I'm just setting up everything the way I want it and waiting for the other parts I ordered for it (a new battery and CMOS battery), and I'll be good to go. I'm calling the new machine Yum-Yum to match my personal laptop, Koko. Anyone who gets the reference (without the aid of Wikipedia) gets a cookie.
It seems to run a little hot, but I'm not sure. Does anyone have any hints on how to get a temperature reading from this? Is it too old to have onboard sensors?
I've been working on setting up various things on it so it'll be just the way I like it (installing software, putting items on the ring menu, making sudo behave nicely (i.e., not ask for my password for things I want to put under menu items), adding a line to the fstab for my new thumb drive, etc.), and I'm pleased with it. It even recognizes when a VGA cable is attached and switches automatically, which will be very nice when I make presentations.
I still need to copy over a lot of files and play with things to get all my settings the way I want them. After all, I recently answered someone's question about what software I use regularly, and it was a long list, so I have quite a few programs to tweak. I'm bad about tweaking things, so I have a lot of tweaking to do yet.
I'm already pretty comfortable with the trackpoint. Don't know yet if I will put a trackball on it. As I was editing this, I reached on my keyboard for where the trackpoint is on my business machine, hehe... I'd say I'm hip with the point. It's better than a touchpad. A lot better.
Well, I guess I'll post this and try to make an update later.
Sorry this has all been geekery, but this is my life right now... getting ready for doing business.
And I keep thinking of more things I need to have on the business machine. Off I go again... And I haven't even gotten to the important bits, like firewall and such.

My new hard drive arrived today. Last week, when I tried to upgrade from the repository, my hard drive started clicking, and the upgrade failed from I/O errors. I tried running various programs that I thought might fix the bad places on the hard drive, but to no avail. So, I decided it was better to just give up on the drive and get a new one, which would be more reliable than my who-knows-how-old Maxtor (which, on looking at the case, turns out to have been manufactured on 06-10-96). So, I popped onto Newegg.com and found the cheapest hard drive with a high number of high ratings and ordered it.
It arrived today, and I installed it in the machine. By the time I can post this, the install will be done. Of course, I archived important files before I took the old hard drive out.
It occurs to me at this point that it may seem that I have been replacing my computer hardware at an excessive rate, given all the posts I've made about my various fresh installs. This is not the case. Most of my equipment is legacy. Probably half of you have nothing as old as my newest desktop machine. Well, it may be higher, given the technical factor to which my friends tend to have achieved. *grin* But this hard drive is a good example. It's 12 years old, and I don't think I was the original owner, unless it's the second drive I had in my very first machine, but I don't think so. I think it's one I picked up from someone who no longer wanted it, because it's a fairly big one, and I don't think I had a big hdd until much later.
Anyway, I have a lot of legacy equipment, and from time to time, pieces of it reach their end-of-service points.
Having finished the new install, I realized I'd forgotten to grab a few config files for aliases and profiles. Oh, well... but I also forgot the interfaces file for the network cards. Oops. My lapses in memory are unimportant, though.
After a few madenningly simple mistakes and their solutions, I had my gateway box up and running. I hope it is just as before, hehe. We shall see, I guess. Anyway, I am again proud of how much I've learned, humbled by how quickly I've forgotten the things that make the system work properly, and happy to be online again with expectations of reliable service for the forseeable future.
I love Linux. :)

I graduated on Saturday.
I feel great about being done with the degree.
Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame, if the name doesn't seem familiar) gave the commencement address, and he gave us quite a number of pieces of bad advice. Needless to say, the speech was thoroughly enjoyable. Since commencement speeches tend to be of a certain length, having one that is funny is the best one can hope for, and I greatly enjoyed it.
The university awarded Jones an honorary doctorate. I got an empty folder, a lapel pin, and a few handshakes.
The organizers of the event just had stacks of these folders on stage, and as we each got to the edge, we'd hand our card with our information and our name spelled phonetically to one of the marshals, who read it. To save time, the university will send out the actual sheepskins in six weeks, when they know whether we've passed all our classes this semester.
C'est la Vie. I was pleasantly surprised to open the program and see two asterisks by my name. I hadn't known for sure whether I was getting any honors (having been far too busy earning the degree to figure out such things), but I looked to see what two asterisks meant among all the various notations, ranging from Army/Air Force ROTC to a special services recipient to Pace scholarship recipient, and it turned out that the asterisks were fairly straightforward: one meant cum laude, two meant magna cum laude, and three meant summa cum laude. So, I could have worn honor cords. Ah, well. The simple black cap and gown was fine for me.
I now have a BA in Communication Arts. More importantly, I'm free.
"Free at last, free at last! Thank God almighty, I'm free at last!"

I was so happy and proud I wore my mortarboard and tassel to church while I went around and greeted people (I took it off during the service).

Microsoft has announced that Windows XP(tm) will no longer be available for most platforms and users after June 30th. This move makes sense for them, but it's not necessarily beneficial to their customers.
Luckily, there are options. ( Read more... )

Last night, when I finished up, I forgot something important.
( Read more... )

Beginning from the login prompt, I login and "su -" to begin making adjustments to the first thing I notice, which is that my prompt is boring and uninformative (I like it to be colored so I can tell at a glance when I'm root and when I'm an average user). ( Read more... )

I recently had the unfortunate necessity of replacing the RAM in my laptop, Koko, apparently because it was overheating. To prevent a repeat of this expense, I purchased a cooling pad (basically a box with two fans that sits under the laptop), which is too small for Koko's widescreen body to rest upon but which seems adequate for cooling if I perch Koko on its top just so.
While testing the RAM with memtest, I had to use my desktop system, Skimbleshanks, for research online and talking to the PcolaLUG. This was unsatisfactory, for various reasons. Mainly, since I use Koko for nearly everything and Skimbleshanks only for archiving my unison files, I had not customized it for my preferences or installed all of my most-used programs. Also, I had somehow messed up the configuration of something, and titlebars were not displaying correctly. Finally, though I could discern no difference in the configuration compared with Koko, Skimbleshanks was not viewing the Debian mirror as a trusted package source.
I use the past tense because I have begun a change in this situation.( Read more... )
Check out these links. They're two parts of a humorous piece on different distributions, comparing them to airlines. Enjoy:
http://linux.ucla.edu/pipermail/linux/2000-May/003064.html
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=704486

For the benefit of those who've known me a while and heard me talk about my computers, Koko is the new name of Zidgel, Skimbleshanks is the new name of Midgel.

I've been needing a Webcam for a while, pretty much since I got new computers that didn't have parallel ports. I have a perfectly good camera, but it's parallel (from the days when I had computers with no USB ports (incidentally because the version of Windows(tm) I had didn't support it)). Recently, I had a friend offer to send me one, but since the world is not friendly to open source early adopters, I didn't want to have the worry of possible hurt feelings if the model given didn't play nice with Linux, and on the practical side, it would be difficult to return or exchange it coming from another part of the country. So I said I needed to buy it myself.
I was hoping there would be a similar situation to the one with printers, with a database categorizing them as perfect, mostly functional, partly functional, and paperweight. I could then find good model numbers, trust them, and have a good experience. *sigh* Well, there is a database, but it's not as comprehensive or as concise as the one at linuxprinting.org, so I was iffy on how to go about it. Finally, I decided to simply buy one and take it back if it didn't work, thereby interacting with the market in the ways of the world: I buy your product, and if it doesn't do right by me, I return it, and you lose a customer until you decide to make nice with my chosen lifestyle. It's free markets as they should be. Hardware vendors are slowly moving toward being nice to open source systems.
I went to Wally World tonight and got a Web camera. It's a Logitech Quickcam Express. It turns out that the gspca Webcam drivers for Linux are available for my distro as a package, so I've installed those through APT. This required a new kernel image, but APT installed that automatically. New kernels are about the only thing that requires a reboot in Linux, so I shut down to reboot. I hope I didn't put anything special into my custom kernel. It's been so long since I compiled it that I don't remember. Oh, well. I'll see whether everything still works after the reboot.
Reboot appears to have gone okay. Sound works, X.org loads fine. Network works. So, I'm assuming everything is golden with the 2.6.18-5 kernel image.
I plugged in the USB cable for the camera. It seems to have found it.
However, it turns out that I had a specialized location in Lilo, so it booted with the old 2.6.17.11 kernel. I've fixed the config and will try again with the reboot.
Reboot went fine. Sound works. Network works. X.org loads. Assuming everything is golden. uname confirms I am running the new kernel. Yay.
More importantly, camstream found the camera and displays the image fine. Not bad for a $26 camera from Wally World pretty much straight out of the box.
However, I have a couple of challenges to overcome. First, my position in the room is not ideal for a camera because the ceiling fan is right behind me, and the light kit backlights me horribly. However, I should note that even at the defaults, the camera captures me pretty well for having my face in shadow. I look hideous, but it's better than my old cam, which made me a silhouette when I was backlit. Second, I haven't figured out how to get Pidgin to look for the camera for Web conferencing. I guess I should RTM on their site and see if this is even a possibility. I probably should have done that before buying it. ;) Turns out, pidgin does not yet support Webcams, but getting one that works under Linux is a big step for me, and I can do other things with it than IM. for instance, I can take pictures of what I'm making or eating or whatever and send them to people.
All in all, I'm happy to have a camera again. I was able to make this purchase because of the generous gift card my grandmother sent me. I'm thankful for that. :)
Now if the friend who encouraged me to get a cam will just come online...

Would I be correct in supposing that some of you might want to see an image captured with this new toy?

Anyway, two morals: Plan ahead so you don't waste effort. ... and ... Nothing ventured, nothing gained; take calculated risks.

I suppose I ought to update this with what's been happening to me, for the benefit of my friends and my poor memory.
The semester is all but over. I have to turn in one packet of assignments tomorrow, and I'm free. I'll need to go back on Friday to get my packet back from Thursday night's class.
I'm still way behind on sleep. I'm hoping I will grow a brain in the next week and start going to bed at decent hours.
We got new fire alarms put up in our house. We went to a free dinner and saw a presentation on fire safety, and really, everyone should look into what protection their homes have, because the standard smoke detector is not enough.
I've been thinking a lot about what I'm going to do when the spring semester is over. In the spring, I'm trying to get an internship lined up, but that may not work out. If it doesn't, I'll do another semester of practicum as a copy editor on the student paper.
Anyway, after spring, I've decided that what I'll do is try to get jobs working for churches or Christian organizations, possibly through my church conference, so I could get paid by them and work for the small churches without charging them... editing copy, building Web sites, teaching churches how to write press releases in a form papers are likely to print, etc.
I found a LUG in the area, and they have an IRC channel, so I've been getting on IRC some (freenode.net). This keeps me up a little later at night, but since most of the people are in the same time zone, not nearly as much as Undernet used to. And I'll be meeting many of them in person at the next LUG meeting. I'm looking forward to that. It'll be nice to sit down with some people who don't get glazed eyes when I start talking about Linux. Sure, the art director at the paper understood it, but it'll be nice to meet multiple people who not only understand Linux but advocate it.
I've been annoyed by things I've heard in the news lately. A lot of people are bashing President Bush about this NIE report and ignoring both the biases of the authors and the intelligence we're now hearing about that refutes its findings. I'm annoyed that I see so much action that is based not on the welfare of our nation but on how people can smear their political opponents, regardless of how much it hurts morale and mission effectiveness, even though the people in question were singing a different tune in the past. It makes me sick, and I'm not going to mention any party names.
On the crochet front, I've finished a major project. Yay! I'll post pictures eventually. I still have 25 exposures left on the roll.
I'm working on a few other things, still. I have a baby blanket I need to finish, a hat I'm working on that I should probably wait until I finish the blanket before I work much more.
I posted some ads for artists, but I haven't gotten any nibbles even. I need to sit down with the pad of paper and just practice drawing until I can do my own artwork, since it looks like I'm not going to have an artist any time soon.
I wish I could think of something else to write. I wish I knew what my friends want to hear more about. I wish I were caught up on sleep. I have a lot of topics I could write about, if I were better rested and more confident.

I wasn't around yesterday because I spent the day setting up my mom's computer and doing homework.
Then I went out to watch a movie with the singles group.
I just got tired of myself. I've been making her wait a long time to check her e-mail and stuff easily because her laptop, which I had set up to do this, is having hardware woes.
So I set her up with a dual boot so she can play games in Windoze and do real work in Linux. :)
Well, so far, I've installed Windows(tm), installed Linux, and done (I think) most of the configuration for the Linux side. Once that is done, I'll do the lilo config so she can boot into Windows or Linux any time she wants.
I started by installing both KDE and IceWM on it, but since it's a rather old Dell(tm) (Entry regarding its arrival 12-20-2003m) with minimal RAM, KDE runs painfully slowly on it. So, I think she'll be using IceWM, which is the same window manager I use. This will make it easy for me to make modifications to her configuration, because I'm familiar with it.
I have set up her Web browsers, e-mail client, sound, IM, and games. I need to configure GAIM to use the sound system and sort out the desktop icons.

I am happy with the progress I've made in the past couple of years. I can now do a full Linux install, including configuration and loading software, in less than 3 hours. I can usually start using it in less than 2 hours from the time I insert the install disc.

This is a little faster than I can install a base Windows(tm) system and securing the most obvious security holes thereon, but not including the time to install all the software I'll need to do real work with it. To sit down and start using it is at least 3 hours from the time I insert the install disc, from what I remember of my experiences with it.

When I think about the number of things I'm likely to have to go back and fix again, and how often that is likely to happen in the course of six months, that difference becomes larger for me. I know when I set something in Linux, it's going to stay set unless I change it. With Windows(tm), my experience is that I often have to go back and set something I've set before because it has mysteriously become unset.

The only thing you need Windows(tm) for nowadays is some games. And that realm is shrinking. More and more games are being ported to MacOS(tm)/Linux/Un*x (think Unreal Tournament), or are becoming usable under Wine (think World of Warcraft). And there is a wealth of games available for Linux that are so cool, they've even been made usable *gasp* in Windows(tm) (think anything that mentions Cygwin in its install documents).
For anything other than games... anyone can improve their experience with computers by switching to either a Mac or a Linux install. If it isn't available for Linux or MacOS(tm), it probably isn't available for Windows(tm)... except for viruses; oops, my mistake...
And if you still want to keep Windows(tm) for some reason, there's always dual-booting, like what I've set up for my mom. If you have any questions, ask me. I'll be glad to help.

By the way, if you're wondering how many games you can play on Linux, here are some lists:
Natively (Some free, some commercial)
Natively (Debian repository (free))
Under Cedega
Under WINE

So, my mom decided to start using her laptop. Unfortunately, it had been so long since I'd set it up that I had forgotten the root password. So, I couldn't update anything significant. I pulled out the install disk and used it to rescue mode in and change the root password. But something went wrong somewhere along the line, and X was complaining that it couldn't access /tmp. So, I decided to just reinstall the system. I decided not to have the root password problem this time. I set it up so there's no root account. Administration will be done with sudo. This is okay, because she doesn't need a complicated system with frequent root use the way I do.
( Read more... )
If anyone has any questions, I'll try to answer them. If I don't know the answer, I can make something up.

Well, it has been an interesting week.
I got pretty worked up Monday night and threw up. Arguably, that was probably influenced by the rice I ate, since others who ate it had problems, but it was still a defining moment for me. I've decided that my worrying had reached a level far beyond what is sinful. So, I've been working on not worrying. I've also been working on getting more rest. To that end, I've decided to lay down as soon as practical after arriving home. If I fall asleep, I get a nap. If not, I've spent some time resting. I hope this (along with trying to go to bed earlier) will help me catch up on sleep. Over the past year, I've slept far too little.
So, I'm going through some rough times, but I already feel much better. I need to keep myself from worrying and rest more and exercise, and I will be well on my way to a better life.

I exchanged part one of Anna Karenina (15 tapes) for part two (12 tapes) a few days ago. I'm already in Part Five (or maybe Six) of the book. There is still more of Anna in the story than I'd like and less of Kitty and Levin, but it is still interesting and keeps my commute from being boring.

I'm working on two stories this week, and both are going slowly. I hope I can get one of them completed in time for next week's edition of the campus paper.

Looking back at the entries I've posted in the past few months and the responses they've gotten, I take it that nobody who reads this journal is interested in cryptography or taxonomy. If I am wrong about this, please leave a comment.

I think people should run either MacOS or Linux (or other POSIX-compliant OS). They're both good choices. *nod*

My first story will appear in tomorrow's campus paper. School is under way. Last week was a little hectic, with the news story and all. This week is about to start being hectic, with this week's story event happening on Friday.
I'm sorry I haven't been around much, but that's how it goes with the schedule I have.
I've been meaning to write entries here for a while, real entries-- not just passalongs and surveys, but that hasn't happened.
I'm still not doing a good job of getting enough sleep.
But it's two weeks into the semester, and I guess I'm doing okay. I don't know how I'm going to get through all the reading I have to do this semester on top of all the work for the newspaper. I started with a bit of a buffer, but I don't know how long that will last, and I'm not sure it's helping, because I read the early stuff so long ago I hardly remember it.
The first day of classes, I borrowed Anna Karenina on cassette from the school library. I've been listening from the point where I had reached in the paper copy. I've now reached the third part of the book. Sadly, I am more interested in Levin and Kitty than I am in the title character. Still, I am enjoying the book, and it distracts me from the length of my journey.
Anyway, I've been looking over some logs from last year. Mostly, I was combing them for questions that were good to ask in getting to know someone. But it is interesting to see some of the topics I discussed with people last year. I think I was much more in tune with current events last year.
I have a hard time following current events because people tend to want to put deep value onto everything they observe. It's good to care about things, even deeply or passionately, but looking at every event as being of epic proportions is like jumping at every sound. It'll be hard for anything to sneak up on you, but in a short time, the adrenaline will do more damage to you than the dangers you feared. I find my life is a lot calmer when I wait to hear things by word of mouth. A lot fewer Chicken Little stories reach me that way than when I pay attention to the media.
That's an ironic point of view, I know, from someone who is studying journalism. But I think it shows that journalists needs to be more selective about describing trends. If we say something is heading a certain way, we might cause the likelihood to shift in that direction. We are stewards of truth, so we need to be sure we are saying things we can verify and not things that are conjectural.
I also think the public would like to see more good news. We don't focus enough on good things that happen.

I'll probably pick up five or ten copies of the paper tomorrow. :)

Here are some notable parts of my journal of the trip to Poland:
  "I've been thinking a lot about single-field missionaries, those lovely people who visit a place and fall in love with it and its people and go back year after year to the same place. I've never really been one of those. I've been a lot of places. This thinking seems to be leading somewhere for me.
  I also reflected that I do have a fierce love of the people in Poland. One of the things I have often prayed in recent weeks is that our team do no harm to the people in Poland, to the reputation of our church or Pastor Kris' parish in Poland, to the relationships between Poland and its Methodist churches and the UMVIM churches in the States. I am at enmity with harm."
  "While I was looking through my devotional book, I ran across a note I'd written on an entry. I had prayed that God would bring me to live out my love of the English language by teaching it OR guide me in a different direction. And I just laughed. How often do we ask God to do this or that, I reflected, and God answers with AND instead of OR? After all, here I am in Poland teaching English, AND God has led me in a different direction, Journalism or something else in Communications."
  "I'm having stronger wonderings about where God is calling me.
  I think that I'm being called to a ministry of drawing people out into the mission field. Obviously, my going many places is not going to make a huge difference, but if I can get many people to go many places for God's mission in the world, that will make a huge difference."
  "Late in the evening, I found myself rattling around and thinking about a calling to draw others into missions. Missions is important, and more important is doing missions the right way."
  We got back on Monday. On Wednesday, there was a meal and presentation by the Peru team, which had left and returned shortly before the Poland team went over. It was interesting to me to see how the light of missions was in the eyes of the team members. That excitement was good for me to see, but I didn't put it there.
  I think that's the first thing God wants me to realize about getting others involved in missions: I can't do it.
  See, I've been trying for years to get my church more involved in missions. But it was another missionary from our church who got this Peru team started. And it was that trip, not mine, that gave them that excitement for God's work.
  The second thing I think God wants me to understand is that it's okay that I can't do this.
  My job is to do what He's called me to do. The results are up to God, so the results are not my responsibility. My responsibility is to do the task God gives me to the best of my ability.
  This idea is a bit freeing, because I don't have the slightest idea about what to do first or next. But it's also scary, because I can't cling to my inability to decide the outcomes for myself, lest I should lose sight of the importance of doing the task God has given me.
  I think my first step, then, is to sit down and make notes about all the things I know about missions. I expect this will take a humblingly short amount of time.
  I wish you well. May God richly bless you.

  Linux is designed, like most POSIX-compliant systems, for multiple users on one machine.
Because of this, I was able to get my mother started on becoming familiar with Linux without having to blow away all the hard work I had done getting her Windows(tm) installation working properly.( See what I did... )
Incidentally, my lips seems to have cleared up completely.

It has been an interesting week.
I spoke to Matt on Sunday about the comic, and we discussed some ideas about the characters. I've printed out a copy of some scripts to give him tomorrow. I'm anxious to get the comic started, but I'm being patient. I probably will need to wait until the end of July anyway, with all that's going on, but I'm hoping we can get everything ready to launch it then.
On Monday, I decided not to post an entry. I'd posted every single day for a whole month, so I feel I have reached a point where I could write a daily column for some media outlet. But having proven that to myself, having completed the experiment, I decided to not post, just to see what happened, how I felt about it, etc. Looking back over the past month and comparing it with previous months was interesting and informative. I intend to write about that in a separate entry.
Monday evening was a meeting.
Tuesday, I think I spent most of the day working on homework.
Wednesday was a meeting of the Poland team.
Thursday, I helped with some work on someone's house and lined up a job for Friday morning.
Friday, I went out and painted trim in a house that's going on the market soon. I also did some homework and some cleaning in the garage. We got some much-needed rain.
Today, I mowed the lawn and laid about five feet of HO track on the new grid table I finally finished. I think it looks fairly good, especially considering my level of familiarity in working with cork roadbed, and the wiring works well. I did a lot of drilling, soldering, and tinkering as I built and tested this section of the layout. In spite of careful planning and execution, I somehow got off somewhere (probably laid a track straight in practice that was not straight when I measured the layout, and I started from the end opposite where I started measuring), so I had to drill new holes for most of the wiring. Oh, well. You live and learn. Maybe I'll put buildings or something where the old holes are.
I'm making some headway in my research, but mostly, this week has been for other things. Still, I'm doing well in my course. I need to put a move on, though, if I'm going to finish everything by the deadlines.
God bless you all.

Getting Windows(tm) to play nice with Linux is usually a pain in the neck for me, but getting it to talk to a CUPS print queue was a real bear. As usual, it was a fairly simple thing once I stumbled upon the right information... except that that information happened to be in three different places, or maybe I didn't read all of the page on some of them; I was in a hurry, and that is the source of many problems for me.
Most of the references I found said much of the same things. You have to setup the printer in CUPS (Common Unix Printing System), and you have to do the following things to CUPS configuration:
1. Make sure network machines can reach CUPS by properly configuring the allow and deny statements in the location sections.
2. Configure Samba for the printer (Here's a good page about that, because this was easy to find: http://tr.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/CUPS-printing.html ). Actually, most of this was easy to find, except for the last key step that made everything work for me.
3. Set Windows(tm) to use your printer. Most of the HOWTOs I found were saying things at this point like "Just set it up normally" without any real indications or examples on how to make it work when it just wasn't. So, I finally found one resource that answered that question AND the question of where to point the silly Windows(tm) printer dialog, because it wasn't finding my printer, even when it was finding it.
I just bought an HP Deskjet 5940, specifically because linuxprinting.org said it works perfectly with CUPS. It does.
But getting it to play nice through Windows(tm) was another story. Here's what I had to do:
I had to install the printer on the Wintel by connecting it directly to the USB port.
I then tried to route it through CUPS. No dice. The install disk wouldn't find the printer because it wanted to directly talk to the printer, not to a spool location.
I tried browsing the network, which would let me find the printer, but the driver tried to run its own diagnostics and again failed. I tried a number of tedious steps and finally landed on this one, which was that, having the printer installed as a local, it was now in the driver list.
I had to set up a class in CUPS. This gave me that magical requirement: the location to point the printer to. Then, I had to add a printer using the location http://CupsAndSambaHost:portnumber(default 631)/classes/ClassNameIChose to make Windows(tm) treat the printer as an IPP connection. By the way, before this would work, I had to add the IP/hostname pair to my hosts file (but that was on most of the HOWTOs I found).
All of which was much more complicated than setting up my laptop to use the printer, which consisted of waiting five minutes after configuring the printer on the CUPS server, loading my laptop's CUPS administration page, and saying, "Oh, look! There's the printer. Yes, I want to add it. Gee, this test page is much prettier than the ones Wintels print."

Hope you're all having a wonderful week. :)

As I've progressed in my adult years, I've made efforts to be more calm, to be less hasty, and to be more circumspect.
As a result, I have gotten into the habit of walking more slowly than I used to. I used to walk with purpose even when I was not heading somewhere. Now, I tend to mosey along as though I had nowhere to go. I can get away with this because I have such long legs.
Unfortunately, I think walking more slowly has resulted in my burning fewer calories than I used to.
I think I need to start walking faster. Not only will it burn more calories and get me to my destinations faster, but it will also give my gait an illusion of purpose other people are sure to admire. ;)
I do like walking, fast or slow. But I think it best if I walk quickly when I am not strolling with someone.

I got my firewall/gateway working again, but I'm having trouble with one of my NICs. All of this hardware is over 5 years old, which is why I love Linux (I don't need 512MB of RAM and a P5 at 4GHz to run it). The upside is that old hardware is cheap or free... the downside is that old hardware is old, and sometimes less reliable than more recent parts.
So, I'm having some trouble right now.
It works perfectly... for about five or ten minutes at a time. Then, the NIC starts dropping packets. Or it may be the motherboard. But it's not working reliably. Well, it was working for a little. Now it's not working at all. I think one or two of my NICs has gone bad. I'll have to get new ones.
I'm going to have to figure out something else soon, but for now, I'll live with what I have, which is my laptop online.
I hope you're all having a great day in the Lord.

I heard a strange noise Wednesday night, and I wondered what it was. It didn't come again, so I dismissed it as something outside.
But then it did come again. And it didn't stop. And messages began to scroll up the screen of my gateway/firewall server. Bother. Error reading the disk. I knew immediately that the noise was coming from my hard disc drive.
I immediately hit the big red switch, which in the case of my firewall is small and sort of a turquoise color. My diagnosis is that the heads crashed on the hard disc.
I went to my office closet and pulled out a tall cardboard box. Two hard drives were there, but both of them were under 500MB. So, I looked in the machine I had sitting in the hall. It had a 1.7GB Maxtor in it, so I pulled that out (dropped it, but not far, taking out the screws. *groan*) and tossed it into the firewall.
15 minutes after the crash, I was done with partitioning the drive and working on installing Debian. I hope I can remember all the configuration stuff I need, because I didn't have any backups for that machine... or I don't remember where I put them. I also hope this machine works, because the next step would be to blow away my WinME machine to make it the firewall... and that's my best CD burning machine; it has the software that burns Linux ISOs without asking me to buy the pro version.
What I am considering is to burn the firewall files to a CD and boot from that, but I'm not sure I want to do that, run my firewall from a liveCD...
I feel so isolated, so disconnected, so helpless and frail, so alone, so... *slap* Snap out of it!
I probably would have had everything running in an hour and a half (that's how long it took to install and configure everything the way the HOWTOs say it should be), but such is life. I had other hardware problems, and I haven't been able to get everything back to normal. I'm at a bit of a loss now. I'll have to think and research and try things for a while. But my laptop is online, so at least I can get some things done. Of course, with the way my cable router works, my problems may just be not enough time with the router unplugged for the MAC address of the old cards to fade from its memory. Again a hardware issue. I'll get this all figured out eventually.
Until then, though, I may be not online much. God bless you. Please pray for me, that I can get this all sorted out.